Carer Payment is $1,237.70 a fortnight for a single carer
The amount is set in legislation, not at anyone's discretion, and it is made up of three parts. As at October 2026:
- Single carer: $1,237.70 a fortnight. A basic rate of $1,135.40, a Pension Supplement of $88.20 and an Energy Supplement of $14.10.
- Couple: $933.00 each a fortnight, or $1,866.00 combined.
- Couple living apart because one of you is unwell or in care: $1,237.70 each, the single rate.
Sit with what that means for a moment. Paid across a year, the single rate comes to a little over $32,000 before tax. That is not a small allowance tucked alongside a wage. It is close to the wage itself, which is exactly what it was built to be, and it is why the test to get it is as strict as it is.
Rates are adjusted by the Department of Social Services every 20 March and 20 September, so check the date on any figure you are given, including these. The current amounts are on the Services Australia rates page.
It is paid at pension rates, which is why people call it the carers pension
There is no payment called the "carers pension". The name stuck because Carer Payment behaves like one. It is paid at pension rates, it carries the Pension Supplement and the Energy Supplement the same way the Age Pension does, and it is means tested on the same kind of rules. If someone has told you to apply for the carers pension, this is what they meant.
There is also a Carer Supplement, an annual lump sum paid automatically if you receive Carer Payment for a period that includes 1 July. You do not claim it separately and you do not need to ask for it.
One thing to be clear on, because it catches people at tax time. Carer Payment is taxable income, and tax is not deducted automatically. If you would rather have it withheld through the year than face a bill at the end of it, you have to ask Services Australia to do that when you claim.
The test is whether the care stops you working full time
This is the test that decides it, and Services Australia words it precisely:
"Constant care means you provide care for a large amount of time daily. This is roughly equal to a normal working day and stops you from working full time."
Read that twice, because it is doing two jobs. It sets the amount of care, roughly a working day. And it sets the consequence, that the care is the reason you are not working full time.
What counts as care is broader than people assume. Services Australia lists three kinds, and you do not need to be doing all of them:
- Physical help, such as needing to be lifted, or help to get dressed.
- Guidance, such as support with shopping and taking the right medication.
- Supervision, to support independence and safety.
That third one matters. Supervising someone with dementia who is physically capable is care, even on the days when nothing happens. The care has to be needed for at least 6 months, unless the person you care for is at the end of their life, in which case that requirement falls away. You can also care for more than one person.
You can work up to 100 hours in a four week period
Here is the part almost every summary gets wrong, and it is the one that stops people claiming.
Carer Payment is not all or nothing. You may still get it if you do paid or self-employed work for up to 100 hours in a 4 week period. That is around 25 hours a week, averaged, and you are allowed to be flexible about how it falls.
Now the part that is routinely reported backwards. The 100 hours does not include travel time to and from work, study, training or volunteering. You will find pages telling you those activities count towards your limit, including travel. They do not. Services Australia excludes all four, and says you do not need to report them.
A few more details that are worth having straight:
- Only time where you are not providing care counts. Hours worked from home can be excluded if you cannot stop working when the person you care for needs help.
- You must still provide care for a significant period each day. The 100 hours is a ceiling on work, not a replacement for the care test.
- You must tell Services Australia within 14 days if you start work, change your hours, or start earning from self-employment.
- You can check your own count. Sign in to myGov, go to Payments and Claims, then Manage payments, then View Work hours summary.
If you do go over 100 hours in a four week period and have no respite days left, Services Australia can suspend the payment for up to 6 months rather than cancel it, which means it can be restarted without a fresh claim.
Both of you are means tested, not just you
This is the rule that surprises families, and it is the most common reason a claim comes back knocked down.
- You are income and assets tested, against the pension limits. That part is expected.
- The person you care for is income and assets tested too. That part is not, and almost nobody is told it in advance.
- Your partner's income counts as well if you have one.
- You both have to be Australian residents, living in Australia.
Their financial position can disqualify you from a payment that exists to replace your lost income, even where your own circumstances are modest. It feels wrong and it is the rule.
Before you start, check their position as well as your own against the current limits on the Services Australia eligibility page. It is a ten minute conversation that can save you a month.
One thing to be clear on. If you receive a Department of Veterans' Affairs payment, that can affect whether you can get Carer Payment at all, and it is worth asking about specifically rather than assuming.
You get 63 days of respite a year without losing the payment
Carers routinely turn down a break because they are frightened that stepping back will cost them the payment. It will not, and the allowance is bigger than most people imagine.
You can access up to 63 days of respite in a calendar year and keep your Carer Payment. Services Australia is explicit that the payment continues if you take a break from providing care, or if the person you care for goes into hospital.
Those same respite days are what you draw on if your work hours go over 100 in a four week period, so they do double duty: a genuine break, or cover for a busier stretch at work.
That is nine weeks a year. If you have been putting off respite care on the assumption that it would jeopardise your income, that assumption has been costing you something it never needed to cost you.
Lodge the claim before you feel ready, because it only pays from that date
Claim through your myGov account linked to Centrelink, or call Services Australia on 132 717.
Services Australia says it plainly: "we usually only pay you from the date you lodge your claim". Every week spent gathering paperwork before you start is a week nobody pays you for, and you can send supporting documents through afterwards. Lodge first, tidy up second.
Expect an assessment of the care needs. The needs of the person you care for have to be assessed and verified by a health professional, so give their GP as much notice as you can.
Have both sets of financial details ready, yours and theirs, because both are assessed.
Ring them if your situation is unusual. Services Australia can apply some of these rules flexibly, particularly where the person you care for has high needs or where you care for more than one person. A borderline case on paper is worth a phone call before you assume the answer is no.
Full details are on the Services Australia Carer Payment page. There is a separate and much smaller payment called Carer Allowance, which works differently and has its own rules.
What to do next
- Answer the full-time question first. Is the care the reason you are not working full time? If you are working more than 100 hours in a four week period, Carer Payment is not the one, and you can save yourself the application.
- Count your work hours properly before you rule yourself out. Travel, study, training and volunteering do not count. A lot of people disqualify themselves on a number that was never right.
- Check the financial position of the person you care for, not just your own. Theirs is tested too, and finding that out now is better than finding it out in eight weeks.
- Lodge the claim today, not when you have everything. It pays from the lodgement date, not from the date you became a carer.
- Ask about tax deductions while you are on the phone. Carer Payment is taxable and nothing is withheld unless you request it.
- Check the date on every figure you are given, including the ones on this page. These amounts move on 20 March and 20 September.
- Do not resign or cut your hours on the assumption you will qualify. Wait for the decision. Leaving a job is the one thing here that is genuinely hard to undo.